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Freud: That’s a sweet championship for Huskies soccer

Chris Freud
Vail, CO Colorado

Welcome back, boys.

That really is an absurd statement, given that Battle Mountain boys soccer has gone a whole two years without winning a 4A Slope title. Maybe such an absence does make the heart grow fonder.

As Battle Mountain soccer has discovered, winning a league title just isn’t that easy. It took overtime against Steamboat … naturally. And it certainly isn’t as easy as the program made it look from 2004-07, when the Huskies reeled off four straight titles.



The questions about “What’s the matter with Battle Mountain soccer?” during the past two years have been somewhat silly. The answer has been, “Nothing. There are other teams in the Slope and they want to win the thing, too.”

And Eagle Valley and Steamboat Springs, both great teams, did so in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

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As then-senior Mike Scigliano told me before the 2006 season when the Huskies were going for their third straight crown, “I’m trying to make this a fresh start. We owe everything to last year’s team, but this is our year. In a sense for me, this is the search for a one-peat, because though I was on the team the last two years, this is really my team.”

So, congratulations to the 2010 Huskies. This is yours and well-deserved, especially for the seniors – Bryan Morales, Oscar Martinez, Johann Santa Ana, Felipe Perillan, Diego Ojeda, Hugo Castillo, Jack Sunderland, Leopoldo Rodriguez, Jesus Nunez, Andreas Calabrese and Cody Hervert.

Nothing is better than going out as champs. Just ask Connor Tedstrom and Davey DeChant, both top-of the-line players and Slope champions in their day. No slight at all to those two, but they’d agree that their senior years were incomplete without a title.

You all have the right to revel for a little bit in this one.

Also remember that you’ve joined an exclusive club, not only as league champions – this is the seventh crown for boys soccer in the school’s history (1991-92, 2004-07, 2010) – but as part of legacy.

Battle Mountain boys soccer is the best program going in Eagle County. Period.

There have been glorious teams who have won state titles (Eagle Valley track and field, Battle Mountain cross country and Huskies volleyball in 2006). There have been teams which have captured the imagination of the local sports community (Battle Mountain hockey, Eagle Valley football, Vail Christian football in 2003). And the 2000 Vail Mountain soccer team is the one that made it the farthest in the postseason in The Beautiful Game, making the semifinals.

But for sustained excellence, it is Battle Mountain boys soccer. This is year No. 13 the Huskies have gone to the postseason, a streak which started before Battle Mountain hockey existed.

This soccer program started this run as a 3A team and continued it when the school became a 4A one in 2000. This is a particularly glowing nugget as we’ve seen all four local high schools at one point or the other struggle with moving up a classification.

And then there’s the record. Since the run began in 1998, Battle Mountain boys soccer is a stunning 142-58-13. That is a winning clip of .697. It’s also eight seasons in a row with 10 wins or more.

This is both good and bad. Good for the obvious reasons, and bad because Huskies soccer is pretty much taken for granted/overlooked. If football had this sort of run – and I hope to see it happen – the campus would have exploded a long time ago.

Seriously, Battle Mountain, you don’t know how good you have it with coach David Cope and the program he’s built.

So to the Huskies, Cope, assistants Kyle Mercer, Allison O’Neill and Max Ferger, enjoy those hoodies which are richly deserved, and welcome back.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.


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